Going wire-to-wire without seemingly breaking a sweat, New Jersey poker player Scott Blumstein rode his final table chip lead all the way to the end in capturing poker’s World Championship with his 2017 WSOP Championship Event victory.
Blumstein not only came to the final table back on Thursday with the chip lead, he pretty much didn’t have any problem reaching the final three with a dominant lead. His 226.45 million chip stack represented about two-thirds of the chips in play and completely dwarfed the stacks of his opponents. Dan Ott (88.375 million) and Benjamin Pollak (45.85 million) faced the nearly impossible task of taking on the behemoth that was Blumstein but, from the start, it was obvious that Blumstein wasn’t going to give them the chance.
Ott tried to mount an offensive to go against Blumstein as he blasted past the 120 million chip plateau within the first five hands of play, but Blumstein immediately took the wind out of his sails on Hand 146 when he bluffed Ott off a hand and sent him back under 100 million. This was Blumstein’s method of attack throughout the three-way action – play many of the hands, push when the situation looked good for him and get away from the hands when it wasn’t in his favor. Blumstein’s instincts were dead on throughout the night when it came to this strategy implementation.
Ott and Pollak would jostle back and forth in an attempt to determine who would take on Blumstein for the title, but all it would succeed in doing is extending Blumstein’s lead. After Hand 180, Blumstein’s 285.17 million in chips was crushing the duo of Ott (46.2 million) and Pollak (35.6 million) handily. Then came the hand of the tournament, one in which the tournament was almost ended in a historic fashion.
On Hand 181, Pollak moved his short stack to the center and Ott, after a moment of pondering, decided to move all in “over the top” of Pollak’s bet. Blumstein, who could have just let the twosome fight it out, instead asked for a count and, after getting Ott’s exact figures, called the bet to set up a three-way all-in situation:
Pollak: Q-10
Ott: K-9
Blumstein: A-Q
Blumstein’s Big Chick was ahead pre-flop, but the situation would completely change once the K-J-3 flop hit the felt. Ott went to the lead, but it was a tenuous one as an Ace or a nine would give Pollak a straight and a ten would give Blumstein Broadway. With Pollak looking for a triple up to stay alive in the tournament, the turn four and river six missed everyone, giving the monstrous 128 million chip pot to Ott and knocking Pollak out in third place.
Although Ott now had a stack of chips, Blumstein’s 232.575 million was still in a dominant position as the heads-up match began. Still, only one double for Ott could change the complexion of the tournament. Alas, Blumstein didn’t allow that to happen.
It would take an agonizingly long 3½ for Blumstein to complete what many thought was a foregone conclusion, a nod to the excellent play of Ott in trying to make a comeback. The relentless pressure and knowledge that just one mistake could end his tournament finally began to catch up with Ott, however. Still, there was some great drama when the final hand came to be.
On Hand 246, Blumstein would limp in but, after Ott fired a raise across his bow, Blumstein responded with an all-in shot back towards Ott. After a great deal of contemplation, Ott would make the call and find himself in the lead with his A-8 over Blumstein’s A-2. A J-6-5-7 flop and turn left Ott as a huge favorite to win the hand (93.1%, to be exact), but just as Ott was prepping his mind for another assault on Blumstein, the poker gods spoke; one of the only three outs that would give Blumstein the hand – a deuce – came on the river to pair his hand, sending the pot and the World Championship to Scott Blumstein.
1. Scott Blumstein, $8.15 million
2. Dan Ott, $4.7 million
3. Benjamin Pollak, $3.5 million
4. John Hesp, $2.6 million
5. Antoine Saout, $2 million
6. Bryan Piccioli, $1.675 million
7. Damian Salas, $1.425 million
8. Jack Sinclair, $1.2 million
9. Ben Lamb, $1 million
With that, the book is closed on the 2017 World Series of Poker – at least the Las Vegas segment of the trip. Beginning October 19, the 2017 World Series of Poker Europe begins at the King’s Casino in Rozvadov, Czech Republic, with 11 more bracelet events at hand. That isn’t something that Scott Blumstein is considering right now…he’s more interested celebrating the fact that he is poker’s newest World Champion.
